Over the last few weeks, Tag and I have been writing about the name of our church, and what it means. It seems redundant to talk about the last part of our name: “Church”. The church used to be an honored institution in American society. For various reasons, some well-deserved, the church as an institution is now less well-regarded. I grew up in a world where very few people in my neighborhood weren’t members of some church. Now, I’m pretty sure most of my neighbors don’t attend church - at least there isn’t any traffic jam on Sundays!
Why call Grace Community a “church”? Why not “fellowship”, “mission” or some other description? Or, why not leave off the word “church” altogether, as some groups are doing? “Church” and “Community” are close enough to be almost interchangeable, and Tag expanded on Grace as a community in terms of relationships. But now, let’s think together briefly on the word “church.”
The word that we translate as “church” is the Greek word from which we derive the word “ecclesiastical”. “Ekklesia” is the transliteration of the word. It is the combination of the word for “calling” and the word “out”. It refers to an assembly or gathering. We are people who are called by God to be believers in Jesus Christ. We gather together because we are called out from a world of God’s enemies to be a people of God together. The word is used both for local congregations (the letters are all addressed to the church in a city) and for the Church in the big sense: all the people of God everywhere.
The Old Testament people of God were also a “congregation” or a called-out people. Through the good times and bad, they were the ones He called out to be His very own prized possession. Thus it is no surprise that as the movement of Jesus-followers expanded, gatherings of believers were the immediate result.
The Bible speaks to this concept of “church”:
- In Matthew 16:18, Jesus promised to build His church.
- In Acts 14:23, the apostles started churches.
- The epistles in the New Testament are written to churches; you immediately know the recipients from the greetings in Paul’s letters.
Without apology, we are called a church because we are believers in Jesus, and He loves churches and is starting them everywhere. Since the dawn of our faith, believers in Jesus have gathered together, called out from a world in rebellion to God to worship, learn, and share life together. This all seems obvious until you realize there is something in us that wants to rail against the idea.
Here are some things you may have heard:
- “I can be the church at home!”
- “I don’t need a church to be a Christian!”
- “The church shouldn’t tell us how to live our lives. Each of us should decide in our own hearts what is right!.”
- “Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian…I don’t go and I believe.”
Many of us have thought, said, and felt things like the above. The best thing to realize is that these thoughts are not from the Bible, but from our culture. We live in an individualistic society where the rights and privileges of the individual are highly valued over the corporate life of the community. I’m as for individual human rights as are you. But there is something harmful and wrong about the independent streak that many of us bring into the family of God.
We were made for God. We were saved by Jesus Christ and His blood. He died for His church. He means for all of His disciples to be in a church. Some believers don’t have that option because of danger and persecution, but none of us can say that. Don’t just join the church….be the church! You are called out together to be His people – God’s prized and precious possession.
In Him,
Don